


From Out of the Darkness

by mavjade



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Also during Rogue One, Angst, F/M, Mentions Cassian, Mentions Saw, Mentions all of Rogue One, Pre-Rogue One, Rogue One Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-04
Updated: 2017-01-04
Packaged: 2018-09-14 03:36:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9158371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mavjade/pseuds/mavjade
Summary: Jyn has lived her life with the darkness always creeping further into her heart. But an event that should cause fear and the darkness to spread further pulls her out of the darkness and into the light.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was written over at boards.theforce.net for the annual fic-gift exchange. This story was written for Chyntuck who wanted a story based around Rogue One.

“What do we do when they come?” Galen Erso asked his six-year-old daughter.

 

“We run,” came her answer. She was looking her father directly in the eyes, but a small smile was on her lips. 

 

“Where do we run?”

 

“To the Talkan Cliffs.”

 

Galen nodded, “And then?”

 

“We hide. Stay quiet until you come for us.”

 

“Good girl.” Galen smiled and kissed his daughter on the forehead. He asked these questions of her at least once a week, sometimes more frequently depending on the news of how close the Empire was to Lah’mu. They practiced the way to the cliffs so many times he thought Jyn could probably get their blindfolded by now. This was his plan, making it so ingrained in his daughter’s mind that even in fear, she’d know what to do and where to go.

 

He knew that when they came for him -and he was positive they would- he had to do everything in his power to keep his Stardust away from the Empire. They would use her to control him and he knew it would work.

 

He was aware that it was just a game to Jyn, they had purposely made it so in order not to scare the young child. They would run and hide, and run and hide all the way to the Talkan cliffs, always looking out for others that might be trying to find them. He hoped it would always stay just a game, but in the deepest parts of him he knew that was impossible. The Empire was expanding, pushing out further and further in their control of the galaxy and their super weapon was the key to complete control and domination. Galen was the key to the weapon, and they would stop at nothing to get it.

 

“And when we are in the dark and scared?” Galen asked his final question of his daughter.

 

“We trust the Force, and we know we are never alone.”

 

~*~*~

 

She watched the troopers look around from under the hatch that was disguised as a large rock. She stood on the rungs of the ladder and held her breath hoping they wouldn’t hear her. Finally, they turned and walked away, and she felt it was safe to climb all the way down into the small space where she would stay until for father came for her. It was dark, very dark, but nine-year-old Jyn knew that this was necessary and didn’t let it frighten her. She had a small light in her bag, but she worried it was too soon to use it. They would still be looking, and she did not want anything to give her hiding spot away.

 

She tried to remember what her mother taught her to do when she was scared. She closed her eyes and imagined she was in her bed, her father sitting beside her telling stories of his adventures. The image was so real she could almost hear her mother yelling that it was time for bed and for her father to stop telling scary stories.

 

Jyn never thought they were scary, she loved his stories. She looked forward to them every night, even the ones she had heard time and time again. After he finished the story, he would kiss her forehead and say “Goodnight my Stardust. May the Force keep you and guide you.”

.

.

.

.

 

She jerked awake, fear jumping though making her heart pound. She was in an unfamiliar place, but the events of the day quickly caught back up with her. She was alone in the dark, waiting. She knew her mother had been hurt, she watched her fall to the ground, but Jyn trusted that her father would take care of her mother. He would never let anything happen to them. Everything he did, it was always for them.

 

She climbed back up the ladder to see what was around and found it dark outside and she could see nothing. She dared not open the hatch, that was one of her father’s rules. The hatch stayed closed until someone came for her.

 

Jyn climbed back down into the cave to wait. She wouldn’t turn on the light just yet. She’d wait a little longer, in the darkness, for her father to come.

 

~*~*~

 

She was sixteen and found herself hiding in the darkness again, just as she had done when she was younger. He had shoved her into a hole and told her to stay. He didn’t say he would be back for her, but she thought that was implied.

 

Saw had taken her in when she was nine, saved her from the darkness and taught her how to survive.

 

They had been on the run, always hiding, always looking for an escape route. That was the biggest lesson Saw had taught her, never be in a situation where you were not able to get yourself out. Have an exit. Have multiple exits. Be prepared to fight. Use everything to your advantage.

 

A table could be used as a place of negotiation, but it could just as easily be used as a shield or a weapon.

 

He also taught her to fight, with weapons and with her bare hands; not to stop fighting until the foe was incapacitated or dead. He showed her how to find water on a desert planet, how to find what was edible in a rain forest. She thought he had taught her how to push away the darkness, but she found herself engulfed once again.

 

Cold.

 

Alone.

 

She waited for what felt like days, but she had no real way of knowing how long it had been since Saw had taken all her means of communication and left her with only a knife and a blaster. He told her that means of communication meant she could be traced, so she waited for him to come as the minutes passed.

 

Hours.

 

Days.

 

She could feel her ability to trust slipping into the darkness, buried deep enough never to be seen again.

 

~*~*~

 

Trust. Love. Faith.

 

These were all emotions Jyn didn’t know. Didn’t have the luxury of knowing. They stayed buried in the darkness where they could not hurt her.

 

Her father who had promised to come back for her had buried faith. Now older, she knew he had not had a choice, and she didn’t blame him, but it was not something she could allow herself to feel. Saw who had saved her when she was a child had abandoned her as a teenager and pushed away her ability to trust.

 

But before Saw had broken her ability to trust, she had loved. Lak’en had been older than her by a few years. He, like Jyn, was an orphan who had found his way into Saw’s small army by necessity. Fight and live, or die. He and Jyn often trained together, ate together, were hardly ever apart.

 

Slowly, she found herself falling in love with him, the kind of love she knew her father had for her mother. The love that got her mother killed. The kind of love that almost got her killed.

 

The love that got him slaughtered.

 

They were out on a simple mission to gather some intel. They were meeting a new contact, one that they were cautious of, but were hopeful would be a wealth of information in the future. Jyn and Lak’en were there for support and lookout; their job was to make sure their negotiator was safe.

 

 

Things were going well until their contact was spooked by another group out to get his information, and a three-way fight broke out. Jyn was doing exactly as she had been taught, she was fighting her way out. She had just knocked unconscious one of the humans that was part of the other group when she turned around just in time to see a blade slide through Lak’en’s stomach, a blade that would have gone through her, had he not stepped in front of her.

 

Jyn shot the being who held the weapon and dropped to her knees, pressing her hands into the large wound that was bleeding profusely. “Lak, why did you do that?”

 

“Jyn.”

 

The fighting continued around them, and Jyn knew that she was an easy target sitting out in the middle of the room, but she found she did not care. “Stay with me,” she begged. “We’ll get you back to the ship. You’ll be fine.”

 

“Jyn,” Lak repeated, his voice growing weaker. “Stay strong. Don’t…. don’t ever let them take…”

 

She could feel the love she had for him slipping into the darkness as she watched the light fade from his eyes and his body go limp. She held onto him for a few moments, his blood covering her hands and clothes. She knew she had two choices, stay here with him and die, or honor his sacrifice and move on.

 

She kissed his forehead, stood up, and continued to fight her way out.

 

~*~*~

 

Jyn and Cassian had done all they could. They had retrieved the plans from the data vault and managed to transmit them to the ships that were waiting above them. The rest was up to someone else.

 

As she and Cassian helped each other toward the edge of the shore, she could feel things she had long since forgotten starting to well within her.

 

They watched as the shockwave of destruction came for them, it’s overwhelming brightness burst through the darkness she had held onto for so long. She felt the light for the first time since she was a young girl listening to stories in her father’s arms.

 

She put out her hand to the man who she had come to know so well in such a short amount of time, wanting to remind him he was not alone. He pulled her into an embrace and the light broke through and the emotions she’d long buried flooding into her.

 

Love. Love for Cassian, Bodhi, Chirrut, Baze, K-2SO, and all of the others who had sacrificed themselves for her mission.

 

Faith. Faith that the Force was with them now, and always. With the Force, none of them were alone.

 

Trust. Trust that the galaxy would rise up in the face of tyranny and oppression. Trust their sacrifice would not be in vain.

 

But above all, she felt one emotion. It was a word she hadn’t heard in so long, but Cassian had reminded her of it. She felt it now as strongly as she had ever felt anything in her life. She knew her life was over, but it did not matter. They had done what needed to be done, and they gave this emotion to the whole galaxy. It burst from her just as brightly as the tide of light that was about to engulf them.

 

Hope.

 


End file.
